The Campaign For DA

3.21.2011

This happened over St. Patrick's Day in Savannah, Georgia and that's about all I know. It starts out as a girl fight but the cops come in at the 1:30 mark. Then the guy to the right of the screen will take a blow from a baton to his leg and goes down. One of the girls who was in the fight then takes about four blows to the leg but (amazingly) doesn't go down. For some reason, she walks away a little bit later and a cop goes and retrieves her by her belt loop and deposits her none to softly onto the ground.

If they are disobeying commands to get on the ground, then reasonable force can certainly be used. But this policy of beating someone with a stick to get them to go down seems a bit overkill.

Language Warning: For some reason, the Internet has proven that anyone who enjoys filming street fights also loves to cuss. Turn the volume off if easily offended (but you will miss the baton whacking sound.)

21 comments:

very rarely will i ever say a cop roughed someone up but swinging that club at that girl then face planting her was way over the line. way over the line. hell and i even believe rodney king deserved what he got.

I would be very, very surprised if the truth is the same officers had not already given these same idiots a pass after breaking up a scuffle a block away earlier in the night.

The crazy chick was approaching the officer aggressively after already being witnessed engaging in assaultive behaviour. He wouldn't have to give her much warning before striking her to promote compliance.

Also, in a rowdy, crowded situation like that let two people get in your face and you'll have twenty.

People behaving badly. Not saying they got what they asked for; but, those cops are scared shitless of the people they have to contend with. Like these people were probably hopped up on drugs. Still, to slam anyone down to the ground with such little reason is just wrong. The mace was enough. I believe some charges against the cops are in order on this one.

@12:54p.m. What kind of interaction did you have with the DPD that would make you think that they would act in such a manner. I have lived in many areas across the nation and Decatur has the most professional and courteous police force without a doubt. If you had trouble with them,then maybe you were the one not doing what you were supposed to be doing.

The PD has to conduct themselves in a professional manner. Just because the previous encounter was a bad person does not give the officer the right to treat the next encounter that way. Each encounter has to be approached fresh and new. For the most part, our police officers act in a courteous and professional manner. Just a few bad ones give them all a bad name.

That's what is wrong with people today. If they F*** up and get busted by the Police, we will sue. Courts and all jury members should start awarding a $1.00 total settlement and court costs and that would stop alot of the sue happy bs. Prime example of Ft. Worth paying the queers $400,000 in the Rainbow lounge even though they say no wrong doing on FWPDs end just to keep it from going to a lengthy trial. Horse shit.

I could not stand it. I had to post something. I worked as a police officer for 10 years in the metroplex. I taught ASP tactical baton for 3 years and pepper spray classes for a couple of years. I was a patrol officer and a patrol sgt. This was normal procedure for a fight in progress. The only thing out of the ordinary was that it was a couple of females. The baton strikes were wrong in my opinion. I was teaching prior to rodney king and the baton was used to gain control, which is what this officer was doing. Once Rodney King happened, the baton was used to defend oneself from whatever might be coming at you, such as somebody trying to kick you or trying to swing at you. I taught center mass of whatever was coming at you unless somebody was trying to headbutt then you went for a shoulder if possible. The baton was phased out in favor of pepper spray to gain control. It is obvious the officer did not have control of the situation. The use of the baton was wrong because it was used prior to pepper spay on the use of force chart. It was not needed on the dude because he was complying. The girl was not and she tried to flee on the advise of a bystander. She was not slammed, she collapsed, because of the pepper spray and alcohol,(just a guess on my part). Usually when somebody is slammed they are reisting she was merly going along with the tug of the belt and could not see from the pepper spray. I think the dude was picked on because the cops do not know how to deal with females that are that aggressive. I would like to ramble on but my beer is getting warm!

3:14 That would not happen to my daughter because she is not a low life like these idiots. I am tired of people acting like animals and then everyone complains that they were treated like animals. You reap what you sow.

When the cop says get down you get your ass down. Save your complaints for the judge.

A little late for a comment on this one, but like the good sergeant I couldn't help myself. His information is a little old school. Now days any baton hit above the waist is considered deadly physical force. The reason for hitting the leg is to incapacitate the subject, not to punish them. If you hit the nerve just right, a little above the knee on the outer thigh, all of a sudden the muscle doesn't work any more and you go down. As far as the female face plant is concerned, the officer is trying to get her on the ground so he can get her into a safe cuffing position. This is the best and safest way to cuff a non-compliant subject. He has already told her to go to the ground. She did not comply. The baton and the spray didn't work. As a last resort he grabbed her and put her down. Maybe he pushed her a little harder than necessary, but you never know how much force it is going to take until you do it. Unlike you Monday morning experts, he has to live in the real world.